Roundup: U.S. equities post weekly gains amid data, earnings
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E-mail Xinhua, February 16, 2020
NEW YORK, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks posted solid gains for the week ending Feb. 14, as investors digested the latest economic data and quarterly corporate earnings reports.
For the week, the Dow added 1 percent, the S&P 500 gained 1.6 percent, and the Nasdaq advanced 2.2 percent.
On the data front, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index came in at 100.9 for February, higher than January's 99.8.
An advance estimate of U.S. retail and food services sales for January 2020, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, was 529.8 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 0.3 percent from the previous month, and 4.4 percent above January 2019, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose marginally in the week ending Feb. 8, according to the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday.
The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 205,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The 4-week moving average was 212,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised average, said the department.
The department said Tuesday that the number of job openings fell to 6.4 million on the last business day of December, and the job openings rate decreased to 4 percent.
The department added that over the month, hires and separations were little changed at 5.9 million and 5.7 million, respectively.
In corporate news, Nvidia reported quarterly results on Thursday after the closing bell that beat analysts' expectations.
The semiconductor company registered revenue of 3.11 billion dollars, up 41 percent from a year earlier. Its GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were 1.53 dollars, up 66 percent from a year ago.
Cisco reported quarterly results Wednesday after the closing bell. The company registered revenue of 12 billion dollars and earnings per share of 0.77 dollar, both beating Wall Street's estimates.
PepsiCo, Alibaba and Applied Materials all reported quarterly earnings that beat expectations.
CVS Health reported fourth-quarter earnings revenue that was boosted by higher sales in its pharmacy benefit management business.
The drugstore chain registered quarterly revenue of 66.9 billion dollars and adjusted earnings per share of 1.73 dollars, both topping Wall Street's estimates. Enditem
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